34 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



and hind legs, my left foot actually touching the 

 toes of his left hind foot. From that unenviable 

 position, still in full possession of every faculty and 

 keenly alive to every move of the game, I saw 

 him tremulously moving his trunk about, to right, to 

 left, above and below, probably considering what his 

 next move was to be. At this moment, the 

 question flashed through my mind, how will he 

 finish me off? And with irrelevant curiosity, I 

 glanced up to see where my bullet had struck him. 

 I experienced no fear of death, I was not conscious 

 of any panorama of my life passing swiftly over my 

 mind ; all excitement had vanished and my heart 

 was not even beating wildly. I was simply solilo- 

 quizing : 'In which way is he going to kill me ? 

 Will he kneel on and trample me horribly ? Will 

 he drive his tusk right through my body, or will he, 

 by some heaven-sent chance, leave me alone ? 

 Whichever way it is, may it be swiftly over and 

 done with ! ' While these thoughts were passing 

 with peculiar calmness and lucidity through my 

 brain, the elephant deliberately turned round, 

 caught me by the shoulder and flung me violently 

 into the branches of a small tree some fourteen 

 yards away, the impact at once knocking me sense- 

 less. On regaining consciousness, a few minutes 

 later, I found myself lying on the ground with 

 Simba kneeling over me vigorously shaking me 



